Marine mammal sightings around oil and gas installations in the central North Sea
Relatively little is known about the distribution and diversity of marine mammals around offshore anthropogenic structures. We present results obtained from incidental sightings of marine mammals around oil and gas installations located 200 km off the Danish coast. A total of 131 sightings correspon...
Published in: | Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom |
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Cambridge University Press (CUP)
2017
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0025315417000406 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0025315417000406 |
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crcambridgeupr:10.1017/s0025315417000406 2024-09-15T17:57:14+00:00 Marine mammal sightings around oil and gas installations in the central North Sea Delefosse, Matthieu Rahbek, Malene Louise Roesen, Lars Clausen, Karin Tubbert 2017 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0025315417000406 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0025315417000406 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom volume 98, issue 5, page 993-1001 ISSN 0025-3154 1469-7769 journal-article 2017 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.1017/s0025315417000406 2024-08-07T04:03:10Z Relatively little is known about the distribution and diversity of marine mammals around offshore anthropogenic structures. We present results obtained from incidental sightings of marine mammals around oil and gas installations located 200 km off the Danish coast. A total of 131 sightings corresponding to about 288 animals were reported between May 2013 and May 2016. A total of seven marine mammal species were identified, five cetaceans: harbour porpoise ( Phocoena phocoena ), minke whale ( Balaenoptera acutorostrata ), white-beaked dolphin ( Lagenorhynchus albirostris ), killer whale ( Orcinus orca ), pilot whales ( Globicephala spp.) and two species of pinnipeds: harbour ( Phoca vitulina ) and grey seals ( Halichoerus grypus ). The most sighted species were harbour porpoise (41%) and minke whale (31%). Relative counts and biodiversity of marine mammals observed around installations corresponded well with the expected distribution in the central North Sea. Several taxon-specific correlations were identified between number of sightings and environmental parameters (depth and latitude) or installation characteristics (installation aerial footprint). Furthermore, 85% of sightings were made during spring and summer and it is unclear whether the pattern observed reflected a natural seasonal occurrence of marine mammals in the area or an effect of reduced effort during autumn and winter. Despite the potential caveats, results obtained during this programme provide an insight into the relationship between marine mammals and oil and gas offshore installations in the North Sea. Article in Journal/Newspaper Balaenoptera acutorostrata Harbour porpoise Killer Whale Lagenorhynchus albirostris minke whale Orca Orcinus orca Phoca vitulina Phocoena phocoena White-beaked dolphin Killer whale Cambridge University Press Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 98 5 993 1001 |
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Open Polar |
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Cambridge University Press |
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crcambridgeupr |
language |
English |
description |
Relatively little is known about the distribution and diversity of marine mammals around offshore anthropogenic structures. We present results obtained from incidental sightings of marine mammals around oil and gas installations located 200 km off the Danish coast. A total of 131 sightings corresponding to about 288 animals were reported between May 2013 and May 2016. A total of seven marine mammal species were identified, five cetaceans: harbour porpoise ( Phocoena phocoena ), minke whale ( Balaenoptera acutorostrata ), white-beaked dolphin ( Lagenorhynchus albirostris ), killer whale ( Orcinus orca ), pilot whales ( Globicephala spp.) and two species of pinnipeds: harbour ( Phoca vitulina ) and grey seals ( Halichoerus grypus ). The most sighted species were harbour porpoise (41%) and minke whale (31%). Relative counts and biodiversity of marine mammals observed around installations corresponded well with the expected distribution in the central North Sea. Several taxon-specific correlations were identified between number of sightings and environmental parameters (depth and latitude) or installation characteristics (installation aerial footprint). Furthermore, 85% of sightings were made during spring and summer and it is unclear whether the pattern observed reflected a natural seasonal occurrence of marine mammals in the area or an effect of reduced effort during autumn and winter. Despite the potential caveats, results obtained during this programme provide an insight into the relationship between marine mammals and oil and gas offshore installations in the North Sea. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Delefosse, Matthieu Rahbek, Malene Louise Roesen, Lars Clausen, Karin Tubbert |
spellingShingle |
Delefosse, Matthieu Rahbek, Malene Louise Roesen, Lars Clausen, Karin Tubbert Marine mammal sightings around oil and gas installations in the central North Sea |
author_facet |
Delefosse, Matthieu Rahbek, Malene Louise Roesen, Lars Clausen, Karin Tubbert |
author_sort |
Delefosse, Matthieu |
title |
Marine mammal sightings around oil and gas installations in the central North Sea |
title_short |
Marine mammal sightings around oil and gas installations in the central North Sea |
title_full |
Marine mammal sightings around oil and gas installations in the central North Sea |
title_fullStr |
Marine mammal sightings around oil and gas installations in the central North Sea |
title_full_unstemmed |
Marine mammal sightings around oil and gas installations in the central North Sea |
title_sort |
marine mammal sightings around oil and gas installations in the central north sea |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0025315417000406 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0025315417000406 |
genre |
Balaenoptera acutorostrata Harbour porpoise Killer Whale Lagenorhynchus albirostris minke whale Orca Orcinus orca Phoca vitulina Phocoena phocoena White-beaked dolphin Killer whale |
genre_facet |
Balaenoptera acutorostrata Harbour porpoise Killer Whale Lagenorhynchus albirostris minke whale Orca Orcinus orca Phoca vitulina Phocoena phocoena White-beaked dolphin Killer whale |
op_source |
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom volume 98, issue 5, page 993-1001 ISSN 0025-3154 1469-7769 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/s0025315417000406 |
container_title |
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom |
container_volume |
98 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
993 |
op_container_end_page |
1001 |
_version_ |
1810433395186991104 |